


The Reason Why

by Bookworm1063



Series: CO Countdown 2020 [19]
Category: Carry On Series - Rainbow Rowell
Genre: Carry On Countdown (Simon Snow), M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-14
Updated: 2020-12-14
Packaged: 2021-03-10 17:28:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28060914
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Bookworm1063/pseuds/Bookworm1063
Summary: Four hints Simon misses over the years, and the one he finally gets.
Relationships: Tyrannus Basilton "Baz" Pitch/Simon Snow
Series: CO Countdown 2020 [19]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2026988
Comments: 6
Kudos: 91
Collections: Carry On Countdown 2020





	The Reason Why

**Simon**

**Third Year**

When I get back to our room after dinner, Baz isn’t there. Good thing, too, because I’ve got Penelope with me, and Baz would get us both expelled for it.

“You’re still not going to tell me how you got in?” I ask. “I’m your best friend, Pen.”

“I’m not telling,” she says. Then she sits on my bed. “Do your homework.”

I groan. Penny raises her eyebrows.

“You have to study, Simon.”

I crouch down and stick one arm under my bed, fishing around for my notebook. That’s when the door swings open. Baz is standing on the threshold.

I stand up so fast, my arm gets caught, and I have to yank it free. I hear a seam rip around my wrist as I do.

Baz looks at me, then at Penny. He turns around and leaves again. The door swings shut behind him.

“Get out of here, Penny,” I say. “He’ll tell.”

Penny stands and leaves the room. I sit in her recently vacated spot, waiting for the Mage to barge in and suspend me.

He never does.

**Fourth Year**

I don’t remember what started the fight this time. One of us said something stupid, probably.

We’re out on the lawn, and the corner of Baz’s mouth is bleeding. I know I’m pretty banged up as well. Baz is a few paces away from me, waiting for a good opening. I don’t have my sword. I’m not trying to kill him, even though he might be trying to kill me.

**_“Head over heels!”_** Baz casts. I go rolling away from him, unable to block the spell. I land flat on my back a few feet away. I don’t know where my wand is; it must have fallen out of my hand. I’m only a few yards away from Baz. He could still get me from here, easily.

I scramble through the grass for my wand, bracing myself for the next blow. It doesn’t come.

I find my wand and stand up, aiming it at him. Only then does he cast again— ** _“Hit the floor!”_**

I go flying again. And again, his next spell doesn’t come until I’m back on my feet. I block that one and charge at him.

He could have ended this twice by now, taken me out while I was searching for my wand. He didn’t. _Why?_

**Fifth Year**

I’m standing in front of the mirror in the bathroom, yanking pointlessly at the ends of my tie. Five years, and I still can’t tie the damn thing reliably.

“Snow!” Baz is standing outside the bathroom door. Any patience he had expired ten minutes ago. “What is taking so long?”

I throw open the bathroom door and step outside. It’s not like I’m getting anywhere with this. Maybe Penny will do it for me.

Baz sees the tie and rolls his eyes. “Honestly, Snow.” Before I can say anything, his hands are at my throat, knotting the tie perfectly in just a few seconds. He steps back, into the bathroom, and slams the door in my face.

What was that?

My face is hot, and I’m glad there’s no mirror in the room, because I think I might be blushing. For no reason. No good reason, anyway.

**Seventh Year**

Penny and I are sitting in the library, passing a dish of Halloween candy Penny’s mum sent back and forth across the table, claiming the best pieces. We’re not really supposed to have food in the library, but as long as we don’t get chocolate on the books, it’ll be fine.

“You haven’t been ranting about Baz nearly as much lately,” Penny says. “I’m almost scared to bring him up, but I’m worried about you.”

“I’m fine,” I say. “I just can’t track him and live with him and worry about whatever he’s plotting, all at once. It’s too much. And I have to live with him, so I guess the rest isn’t really happening this year.”

“None of that stopped you fifth year,” Penny says.

I shrug and unwrap a Kit Kat.

Behind us, a chair slides back from a table. I glance over my shoulder.

I’d known he was there, of course, but it only just now occurs to me that he could probably hear us. He stands up and starts making his way out of the library, passing our table on his way to the door.

Then he stops and looks back.

“You know,” he says, “I don’t think I’ve had Halloween candy since I was seven, Snow. Leave it to you to waste time on an activity for Normal children.”

“Piss off,” I say.

Baz rolls his eyes and fishes something out of his pocket. He tosses it onto the table, and I flinch.

“You might as well have that,” Baz says. “It’s not like I have any use for it.”

He leaves the library, and I look down at whatever he threw. It’s a large bar of Hersey’s chocolate.

“What the hell?” Penny asks. I shove it away.

“It’s probably poisoned.”

“Maybe.” Penny picks up the candy and turns it around. “Seems like a bad way to get rid of you, though. It’d be easy for me to tell the Mage where you got this from.”

“I don’t know.” I take the chocolate back from Penny and stuff it into my bag. “There’s not really another reason for him to have given it to me, is there?”

**Three Years Later**

I’m sitting at the kitchen table in the flat, frowning down at my phone. “This is supposed to be an easy recipe,” I say.

“Clearly, it isn’t,” Penny calls back. She’s sitting on the sofa in the other room, clicking through channels on the TV. “Did you follow the instructions?”

“Yes,” I say. I shove the phone away in frustration. It almost goes sliding off the other end of the table; I lunge and catch it at the last second. “They’re not bad, I guess, but they’re nothing like the ones at Watford.”

There’s a rattle from the front hall as Baz unlocks and opens the door. “Hello, Bunce.”

“Hey, Baz,” she says. I stand up and poke my head out the kitchen doorway.

“Snow,” Baz says. He fishes through his coat pocket and pulls out a sheet of paper. “This is for you.”

I take it from him. The heading says _Sour Cherry Scones_ in Baz’s neat cursive.

“Where did you get this?” I ask, scanning the recipe. I’m not sure, but I think it may actually be Cook Pritchard’s. 

“I called my aunt and got her number,” Baz says. “She read her recipe over the phone.”

“Baz,” I say. I set the paper down on the kitchen counter. “You didn’t have to do that.”

Baz shrugs. “Well. I was sick of watching you struggle with those sorry excuses for recipes.”

I know him too well by now, though. What he’s really saying is that he cares.

So I go to him, and I wrap my arms around his waist, leaning into his chest. He kisses the top of my head.

“Thanks,” I say. “I love you.”

“It was only a couple of phone calls,” Baz says.

I look up at him and frown. “You do it because you love me too, though.”

“That’s true,” Baz says, and he kisses me again.


End file.
